is
not always true.

Not only does distance cut out details from a picture; the fact that
man sees in a straight line and not around a corner eliminates some
features. In describing a house, remember that as you stand across the
street from it, the back porch cannot be seen, neither can the
shrubbery in the back yard. A writer would not be justified in
speaking of a man's necktie, if the man he was describing were walking
in front of him. In enumerative description the inside of a box may be
told of; a man may be turned around, as it were; but to present a
picture, only one side can be described, just as it would be shown in
a photograph. Any addition to what can actually be known from the
point of view assumed by the author is a fault and a source of
confusion. Choose your point of view; stay there; and tell only what
is seen from that point.

Moving Point of View.

It has been said that the point of view should not be changed. This
requires one modification. It may be changed, if the reader is kept
informed of the changes. If a person wished to describe an interior,
he would be unable to see the whole from any one point of view. As he
passed from room to room he should inform his reader of his change of
position. Then the description, though a unit, is a combination of
several descriptions; just as the house is one, though made of
dining-room, sitting-rooms, bedrooms, and attic. This kind of
description is very common in books of travel, in which the author
tells what he sees in passing. The thing to be remembered in writing
this kind of description is to inform the reader where the author is
when he writes the different parts of the description,--to give the
points of view.

The Point of View should be stated.

The point of view, whether fixed or moving, should be made clear.
Either it should be definitely stated, or it should be suggested by
some phrase in the description. In the many examples which are quoted
in this chapter, it would be well to see what it is that gives the
point of view. The picture gains in distinctness when the point of
view is known. The following sentences are from "The Old Manse;" there
is no mistake here. The reader knows every move the author makes. It
opens with:--

"Between two tall gateposts of rough-hewn stone (the gate
itself having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch)
we beheld the gray front of the old parsonage terminating
the vista of an